who are you, tom waits:

“I did my time in the jail of your arms.” -from the song Who Are You, by Tom Waits Flag Assemblage: "Don’t Matter How Raggly the Flag, It Still Got to Tie Us Together” 2003, Thornton Dial

whether or not you are a fan of mr. waits, whether or not you have ever even heard of him, if you turn on the television these days and cue in on anything happening in the US, with little effort you can see the lyrics to this song panning out in physical form as that of an old individual whom may of once had hope for a country that they now see dying, a decrepit empire that like rome has spread itself so thin in the attempt to squash every person on the planet who might not like it that this richest country in the world is stealing their natural resources & using them all for itself while at the same time those living within these borders are starving & exhausted from being deprived of universal healthcare, watching every break under the sun being provided for the uber-uber-rich who shelter themselves within the crumbling empire.

 

the gig is up & when all faith is finally lost, the torches & the pitchforks will be picked up---it took sack after sack of barbarians to punch the roman gut repeatedly while its people died off within, raging in chaos, but it finally fell.

 

listening to tom’s song,

the parallels of being in a relationship in which you have been

cheated on &

lied to,

to that of living in a greedy empire &

feeling

cheated &

lied to,

are simply

uncanny.